A Quote by Knute Rockne

I don't like to lose, and that isn't so much because it is just a football game, but because defeat means the failure to reach your objective. I don't want a football player who doesn't take defeat to heart, who laughs it off with the thought, "Oh, well, there's another Saturday." The trouble in American life today, in business as well as in sports, is that too many people are afraid of competition. The result is that in some circles people have come to sneer at success if it costs hard work and training and sacrifice.
I don't like to lose, and that isn't so much because it is just a football game, but because defeat means the failure to reach your objective.
Football was a wonderful experience for me. It was a means of, oh, I don't know, sustaining for much of my youth. In times of trouble, I've always had football. I always knew I was a football player. And that was a comfort on many occasions.
Realize that the reason most people fail isn't because of the competition but because of the limits they place upon themselves, allowing defeat to take over. Take responsibility for your destiny. You can come up with a performance, if you can reach down and dig deep enough into your competitive soul. You can overcome tremendous obstacles.
It's a competitive business, and everybody wants to be the best. And when there's a new guy coming in, and there's buzz about him, 'Oh, he was a pro football player,' you instantly have people that don't like you because they're afraid you're going to take their spot.
I love the game just as much as anybody else. But at the same time, I also understand that life is more than football, too. People might get that misconstrued sometimes, too, that I don't care because I'm not die-hard football, eat, sleep and drink it all day and all night.
I think that it's perhaps harder to learn from victory than it is from defeat. I think that we don't want defeat. We don't want defeat in sport. We don't want defeat in life. How are we going to be beaten? All right. We have to deal with those things. What's going to cause us to lose the game, whatever the game might be?
People consider me a success because I'm a good football player and make lots of money. But if my heart's not right, if I'm not living a life pleasing to God, I'm a failure.
Football used to be my god but no longer is. I still love it, I'm still aggressive, I still want to be very successful at it, I want to win a lot of football games. And my job is to be the best football player in the world, because it affords me a life; it pays, it's my job, and so it hasn't dulled my senses for the game or the love or the great excitement I get from the game. It's just that I'm very much at peace with myself because of my faith.
Players like Messi and Xavi are always hungry. Whatever the game or the competition - even if it is table-tennis - they want to win. We used to play two-touch football games after training and they would always be desperate to win. It taught you about life as well as football.
I don't judge my self-worth as a football player. Football is something I love. It's a fun career deal, but it's not what I want to do with my life, because I see football as a game.
I think the part that people get confused is that when you come in National Football League at a young age, they tell you to try to look for other things to do, and be ready for everything else in your life just in case. But as soon as you have a bunch of success, they think that's the only thing you can do, that you can only be a football player. I think God has gifted me with so many other things other than just football, and that's what I want to bring to the world.
I feel that Im not losing the game for our team. Im trying to give us the best opportunity to win the football game. I did everything I could to lose the Jets game but we won. And the Patriots game, I didnt play well. I think that this year, I just come out and play smart football. I got some good advice the other day (from CBS Sports Dan Dierdorf): Every drive that ends in a kick is a good drive.
When we go out to train, we work hard, but when we're back in the hotel, you want to chill out. People want to switch off from football because you spend so much time doing it. For me, switching off means playing jokes.
I'm sure at some point in my life, I'll want to go back to club football because people will say, 'Oh well, he did OK as an international manager, but he didn't work as a club manager.'
Outside football, I just love life, you know. We're lucky to play football, to have all this body. Everyone's watching us. You see how many people, they come and watch the game. It's unbelievable, you see how many people they come. They shout your name and just enjoy life.
I can't imagine where I'd be without the opportunities provided to me in sports. Sports taught me that gender isn't an issue; in fact, when people talk about me being the first female governor, I'm a little absent from that discussion, because I've never thought of gender as an issue. In sports, you learn self-discipline, healthy competition, to be gracious in victory and defeat, and the importance of being part of a team and understanding what part you play on that team. You all work together to reach a goal, and I think all of those factors come into play in my role as governor.
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